Kristen A. Borsari
This unit is a curriculum is designed specifically for the fourth grade social studies curriculum Regions of the United States of America. The unit can be used in pieces or in more or less detail to fit nicely into the curriculum of younger or older children. It combines the social studies aspect with the science aspect, learning about the habitats and the food chains that exist within each region. The driving question of the unit: The world is made up of many interconnected habitats, and each habitat has its own food chain. How have these food chains affected the way humans live and how have humans affected the food chains of the habitats in which they live?
The unit gives background knowledge and lesson formats that can be used for each region studied over the year. The unit also addresses the need in fourth grade to introduce to the students expository writing by using the essential question as a writing prompt. The essential question leads children to synthesize their knowledge of science and social studies in written form to think about the world in which they live. The unit also encourages in children a connectedness to the world around them and a sense of responsibility to this world.
(Developed for Social Studies, Science, and Literacy, grade 4; recommended for Social Studies and Science, grades 3-5)
